


Wizards and Knights, green and red

by bunnysworld



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen, Kid Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-23
Updated: 2015-06-23
Packaged: 2018-04-05 18:41:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4190793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bunnysworld/pseuds/bunnysworld
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Merlin and Arthur meet at playschool. Their parents are not thrilled, but the boys find ways to be together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wizards and Knights, green and red

**Author's Note:**

> Written for my 'de-aged' square at the merlin writers Tropes Bingo.
> 
> Sorry, not beta'd either. It's close to my vacation, just no time :D

Hunith rushed into the play school. “Merlin!“ 

Merlin sat on a little bench, already wearing his jacket and little backpack, dangling his feet. When he saw his mother, he slid off the bench and ran towards her. “Mam!”

“I’m so sorry, honey. When I was about to leave, Doctor DuLac gave me more work and I had to finish that.”

The boy just nodded and followed her out to the waiting car. More often than not did he have to wait for her.

“Are you hungry? What do you want to eat?”

“Sageddi!” Merlin beamed and hugged his plush toy closer to his chest.

Hunith chuckled. “We can’t have spaghetti every night.”

“Why?”

“We might get a spaghetti poisoning and we don’t want that, do we? How about I’ll make some sausages and we’ll see what else we do have in the fridge?”

Merlin nodded. It had been a long day, he didn’t care what there was for dinner if it weren’t spaghetti.

Once in the house, Merlin took off his little backpack, pulled his jacket off and dropped it where he stood and climbed the stairs to his room.

“Merlin Emrys! No shoes in the house!”

After dinner Hunith looked at Merlin and frowned. “What is this?”

“A night!” Merlin beamed and showed her the plush doll he had brought from play school.

“Merlin…this isn’t your toy. Can I see it? Where is Wiz?” She reached for the knight plushie that was clearly from the same manufacturer Merlin’s favorite wizard was made by, in fact, they had stood at the shelves and Merlin had considered the knight and the red dragon but then decided that he liked the wizard best along with the green dragon that belonged with the series.

“With Afer.” Merlin dangled his feet and beamed.

Hunith had never heard Merlin say that name before. “Who’s that?”

“He was there for the first time. He’s nice.”

Smiling, Hunith examined the toy. Merlin thought that everyone was nice but there must have been something special to the new boy that Merlin gave his favorite toy away. “So you let Wiz stay with him for the night?”

“No, Afer gave me Night and he got Wiz.” 

“Are you sure you’re not going to miss him?”

“I have Night now. Look, he is soft and has yellow hair…like Afer…and he smells like Afer, too!” Merlin dangled his feet and looked at his mother excitedly.

“Okay.” She wasn’t very happy about that. It was nice that Merlin liked the new kid, but she hadn’t met him yet and you never knew what his background was. Then she found a label stitched to the inside of the toy’s red cloak. ‘Property of Arthur Pendragon’. She would go to the play school the next day to take a look at the kid and see if he really wanted to swap toys with Merlin or if he wanted his knight back. 

“But who do you sleep with tonight?”

Merlin’s face fell. He couldn’t fall asleep without Wiz, Wiz kept all the evils of the night away. His lower lip trembled slightly. “Night?”

“Alright. You can take Knight along, but just for tonight. Kilgi can keep you company, too. We will talk to Arthur tomorrow, he might want him back? And if he does, he will have to give you Wiz back.”

Merlin looked torn. He liked Arthur and he liked Knight, but Wiz…

“Wash up, sweetheart. I’ll be upstairs in a minute and we’ll brush teeth and I’ll read you a story.”

+++

When Hunith came out of the playschool’s office where she had talked to someone about the toy swapping, she saw a tall man looming over Merlin, who stared up at him with tears in his eyes.

“You immediately give the toy that you stole back!”

“Excuse me? How dare you talk to my boy like that!” She hunched down and picked Merlin up. “He didn’t steal anything!”

“So you are the mother of this little thief?”

“Merlin is no thief! They swapped toys, kids do that once in a while. See, your son still holds Wiz.” She said when she spotted a little blond boy who clutched Merlin’s toy to his chest. “Am I accusing him of stealing?”

Merlin didn’t care what the adults said but the man scared him. First, he buried his face against his mam’s neck and then he looked at Arthur, who still stood there, looking lost, and held Wiz. “Wiz!” He wiggled until Hunith set him down and went over to give Arthur the knight toy back and beamed when he held his beloved wizard again. 

“Father doesn’t allow me to give you my toys.” Arthur looked sad.

“But we can play with them here.” 

Arthur shook his head. “I am not allowed to play with you.”

Merlin pouted. “What did I do?”

“Nothing, but father said I can’t play with you.”

The boys didn’t notice that the adults still argued in the hallway as they played with their toys together anyway. 

“I will inspect Arthur’s toys when he comes back. If one of them is missing or broken, I’ll hold you responsible.”

“What a fine prat you are! You can’t command them to not swap toys and things go missing and get broken, that has nothing to do with Merlin or me!”

“I will. Hold you. Responsible. I will check. If anything is out of the ordinary, you’ll hear from my lawyers.”

It was difficult for Hunith to not agree with Merlin that Arthur had a ‘bad dad’ over dinner that day and later she smiled when she noticed that Merlin not only had Wiz back but that Kilgi, the dragon, miraculously had switched colour from green to red. 

“Arthur’s got Kilgi?”

Merlin grinned and nodded. “Afer said his dad will never notice.”

She leaned down to kiss his temple. “Sleep tight, honey.”


End file.
